Reborn!

46: New and Old

"A short time," rasped Hiruko under Naruto's skilful control. "Were you tailed?"

"No, it is safe..." said Kabuto, a bit too quick to answer.

Within the puppet, Naruto's lips twitched. "Is that so?"

A venom-coated senbon shot from a hidden mechanism, piercing into a tree as it narrowly avoided the observing Orochimaru.

Orochimaru did not move, continuing to watch the exchange on the bridge, but Naruto now felt the Snake Sannin burning holes into his back with his stare.

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Kabuto did not even notice that his master had narrowly escaped death.

Naruto wondered why he had such a good opinion of Kabuto before -- he had expected the jōnin-level shinobi to be capable of much more.

"How have you been?" asked Hiruko.

"When your jutsu was lifted and I remembered who I was, I felt somewhat disoriented. Even now, I'm still feeling quite heavy-headed..." Kabuto replied.

"I have questions for you," Hiruko grunted.

"I don't have much time, so please make it brief. I've taken a great risk by slipping away from Orochimaru to come here," Kabuto complaisantly answered, his eyes darting around shiftily.

Naruto mutely noted how Orochimaru did not see fit to alert Kabuto to his blown cover, and he wondered how the master and servant duo have yet to fall out with each other.

"Tell me about the location of Orochimaru's base and the Uchiha you have recently taken in," Naruto continued to question using Hiruko's voice, not allowing his performance to be affected by his knowledge of the situation.

Kabuto cluelessly began to reveal, believing Naruto to be the true Sasori, "We have many bases. To avoid discovery, we switch locations weekly. Of course, there are bases outside of Otogakure. Orochimaru's spies infiltrate those countries and guide us. However, since our movement patterns are numerous, it can be difficult to predict where we will be going next... Our current base is hidden on a small island in a lake to the north. We will be moving from there in three days."

Naruto was impressed, every time, by how Kabuto could be so utterly truthful to his enemies.

Was he bad at lying or simply that confident in himself?

Even during the previous timeline, this had been true -- the base was only vacated because the location had been exposed to Yamato.

"By the way, Sasori-sama... Regarding your orders..." Kabuto spouted bullshit with no conviction whatsoever, "After transferring to his new body, Orochimaru used a barrier jutsu to protect his former vessel and I was unable to retrieve the cell sample you needed."

"I see..." Hiruko drawled, "Does that mean that you are offering yourself to become my puppet?"

Kabuto tensed in alarm and, at that moment, Orochimaru appeared by Kabuto's side, a large snake winding around the "traitor"'s body.

"Such an interesting conversation you are having here... Mind if I joined in?" Orochimaru spoke in his usual creepy manner.

"Did you enjoy the play?" Naruto used Hiruko's voice to address Orochimaru, not moving to rescue Kabuto.

"Quite," Orochimaru laughed manically as his snakes crushed Kabuto's ribs.

"Orochimaru...sama..." wheezed Kabuto.

"Orochimaru is quite crazy, isn't he? For him to attack Kabuto with his own hands."

Orochimaru clicked his tongue, releasing Kabuto without a backward glance.